Once the ordered items are placed into the hands of a courier / postal service how can the shop be resposible for delays in delivery ? Recently Australia Post delivered an item to my local Post Office and for some reason didn't leave a card in the letter box I only discovered that it had been delivered when I went to buy some milk ( local shop doubles as the PO ) . I asked if they happened to have the item and unexpectedly after a brief search the shop owner found it . It had been there for two weeks.For some illogical reason I was blaming the shop in the Uk for the apparent non delivery . Whats more the post mark showed they sent it the day after I ordered it just as they said they had.

fthills wrote:Once the ordered items are placed into the hands of a courier / postal service how can the shop be resposible for delays in delivery ?

On the surface your comment is correct, however as PBK has a track record for slower deliveries than other UK sites they must choose a slower level of service from the courier (mail service) than Wiggle or CRC do.

Or perhaps the PBK post office sorting centre is not as efficient as the ones that sort stuff for CRC / Wiggle , or maybe it takes longer for the local PO to send their stuff for international despatch , who knows ? the end result is the same, we don't get stuff from PBK in a timely way. But there are too many links in the chain to say precisely where the system isn't performing.

Don't get me wrong I rarely buy from PBK and even more rarely from Ribble because of past experiences with long delivery times but the delivery invoices / dockets when I've bothered to look at them have generally been in line with the date I placed the order with them.

I once ordered something from Italy. The chainring is now probably mounted on a nice Colnago somewhere in Milan , who knows. If you want a laugh google "italian postal service reliability"

fthills wrote:Once the ordered items are placed into the hands of a courier / postal service how can the shop be resposible for delays in delivery ?

On the surface your comment is correct, however as PBK has a track record for slower deliveries than other UK sites they must choose a slower level of service from the courier (mail service) than Wiggle or CRC do.

fthills wrote:the end result is the same, we don't get stuff from PBK in a timely way.

Amazing really. I can still remember the glory days of PBK when the forums were filled with people raving about how that familiar blue bag would arrive in Australia only four or five days after placing the order, with the cheapest prices you had ever seen.

Hadn't ordered from PBK for ages but placed an order on 24 March and it arrived on 11 April. Not as fast as Wiggle sometimes is but pretty good. Interestingly, the item appeared to be dispatched from France - certainly the postage info was in French.

brauluver wrote:Ordered from Cell once and susequent phone calls left me frustrated,as to the vagueness and lack of knowledge/dealing with multiple staff.Never again.

Hi brauluver, sorry about your less than ordinary experience with us. If you wouldn't mind to email me (mark@cellbikes.com.au), to let me know in more detail what happened, I'd love to offer you a Gift Certificate to let you try us again, on us. We take all constructive feedback and do our best to identify what happened, and where we fell down, and then we get back up, and try to do a much better job.

The constructive feedback you guys give is much appreciated, because it's how we learn and know how we need to improve.

Hope to hear from you, and hope to have a chance to make it right, and at least be in consideration for any future cycling needs of yours.

Ordered online from TBSM a pair of shimano equinox sunnies and the compatible RX clip as well as a sram 9 speed chain for my father's mtb 11pm 7 April, paid via paypal and got confirmation email about order straight away, then an order update email at 4pm on 8 April stating order had been processed with dispatch expected 9 April. I then received a phone call from one of the TBSM staff mid morning 9 April wanting to confirm the shipping address. Bit strange i thought some of the details required during the ordering process was the shipping address. Then... nothing. No dispatch confirmation email, no e-parcel tracking number, so i'm having to follow up sales with an email tonight.

After shooting off an email to TBSM last night regarding the non-shipment of the gear ordered a week ago, i received an email this morning from sales advising they'd follow up the matter and shortly afterwards got another email saying the chain i'd ordered wasn't in stock and they'd upgraded it to a better chain & were Express Posting the gear out instead of via e-parcel. Wow, that is serious making up for a minor stuff up. +1 TBSM.

Had a good experience with cycling express a few weeks back. I was planning to order a trainer, cassette and trainer tyre, knew they had a 12% off discount but missed the order deadline. Emailed them on a sunday, got a reply immediately extending the offer. Placed the order and received the package within a week! Also, the trainer (cycleops fluid pro) was MUCH cheaper than overseas even before the discount!

Cell bikes are also consistently excellent, fast shipping and good prices.

george-bob wrote:Had a good experience with cycling express a few weeks back. I was planning to order a trainer, cassette and trainer tyre, knew they had a 12% off discount but missed the order deadline. Emailed them on a sunday, got a reply immediately extending the offer. Placed the order and received the package within a week! Also, the trainer (cycleops fluid pro) was MUCH cheaper than overseas even before the discount!

Cell bikes are also consistently excellent, fast shipping and good prices.

Thanks for the feedback george-bob. We're still working on our stock & shipping, even if 99% get their orders on time, I'm not satisfied even if 1% have stuff ups.

Cycling Express have some really great deals! A lot of shops may not like them, but it's good to have other shops in Australia that give Wiggle, CRC and others a run for their money!This only serves to make things better for you guys! As overpriced and badly serviced shops will need to either evolve or die.Website Mgr Mark

It isn't always about price sometimes. We tend to forget that good service which may not cost a cent is worth $$ to customers. CE may have good prices (sometimes) but I won't ever press that "checkout" button on their web site.

SmellyTofu wrote:It isn't always about price sometimes. We tend to forget that good service which may not cost a cent is worth $$ to customers. CE may have good prices (sometimes) but I won't ever press that "checkout" button on their web site.

Hi SmellyTofu, you're absolutely right about that. I do my best to make sure we have both! Even if we can't have the lowest price, we can always control having the best service.We're not perfect, and some people get fed up with us too, and also say they'll never come back, but I'll always do my best to make things right, anyone can pvt msg me here or send me an email if they need something sorted (mark@cellbikes.com.au).

Also, if any of you ever receive less than satisfactory service from someone at CELL, please let me know, and I will take care of it. We're like a restaurant....I want to know if a waiter ever gives you bad service or if a chef makes you bad food, everyone at CELL is held accountable for their actions & interactions with our customers!

My last 2 orders from Wiggle have been mind blowingly quick! Ordered some kit and accessories on Friday at lunch time and they arrived at 2pm Monday!

I also ordered a set of Elite Digital rollers for a great price and had them arrive within 5 days (inclusive of the weekend)! Better yet, it was free postage! I was quite surprised as when it arrived it was a large heavy box.

AA+ to Wiggle. Im also very impressed with their customer service and response time to enquiries.

Have shopped with Cell and CyclingDeal in Aus too and was also happy with delivery times.

You guys keep doing what you guys are doing coz it's great. Although I haven't bought heaps from you guys when you compare to my other purchases from other sites, it's always good to keep an eye out on stuff.

One criticism if I could make which has nothing to do with the delivery end of the business is that the range is a bit lacking and I'm plucking at straws and I know the cost/risk to stock these items is high if you can't sell them but even if you make it available but not stock them for you to ship out this very minute is fine in supporting local at the right price.

A suggestion however is to perhaps offer free shipping if it's picked up at the Stanmore shop. Not only do people save $ on shipping, but people picking up things get to walk in and browse the shop for whatever they've missed online if they are local. But that's my 2.2c incl GST worth.

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